Copyright Agency sues NSW government after unsuccessful mediation

27 June 2018 Books+Publishing

After an unsuccessful mediation last week, the Copyright Agency is pursuing a law suit it filed against the New South Wales state government last year over the non-payment of copyright licensing fees for material used by the state government and its agencies.

CEO Adam Suckling said in a statement that the Copyright Agency participated in mediation with the state government on Wednesday, 20 June, but were ‘regrettably unable to reach agreement’. The dispute will now be heard by the Copyright Tribunal.

However, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice told Books+Publishing that the state government was still ‘hopeful’ that mediation would be successful. ‘The Department of Justice has been negotiating with Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) on behalf of the State in an effort to achieve a fair and equitable arrangement. The Department is hopeful the mediation will deliver an outcome that is reasonable for both authors and taxpayers,’ said the spokesperson. ‘As negotiations are commercially sensitive and the matter is still before the Copyright Tribunal, it would be inappropriate to make any further comment.’

In November 2017, the Copyright Agency filed a suit against the NSW government before the federal Copyright Tribunal, alleging the government owes its members for copying up to 200 million pages of copyright material without appropriate approval or recompense.

Authors Tara Moss, Anna Funder and Malcolm Knox have also offered public statements condemning the NSW government’s failure to pay licensing fees.

Category: Local news